By Matthew Hurley: According to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, Marco Antonio Barrera’s retirement will be short-lived. Barrera, 63-6 with 42 KOs announced his retirement at the post fight press conference following his October points decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in their rematch. Barrera’s retirement came on the heels of arch rival Erik Morales’ apparent bowing out after his close decision loss to WBC lightweight champion David Diaz in August..
According to Schaefer, Barrera is looking toward a possible bout with WBC super-bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez. Vazquez is now in training for his third matchup with Rafael Marquez, which is scheduled for March 1st at the Home Depot Center in California.
“Marco Antonio Barrera came to see me a few weeks ago,” Schafer told the Sporting Life. “I have discussed some possibilities with him, one of which would be against Israel Vazquez. If Vazquez were to win (his fight against Marquez) the potential for him to move up to fight Barrera has been discussed.”
Morales, 48-6 with 34 KOs also indicated that he plans to come back. His longtime promoter Bob Arum has said that ‘El Terrible’ approached him about his return to the ring but Arum has politely yet firmly refused to promote a bout involving the Mexican icon. Morales’ acknowledgement that in recent bouts he has been “feeling” the punishment more than he ever has indicated to Arum that a ring return could be dangerous and that out of respect for one of his “favorite” fighters he will not promote him in the future.
In a report filed by ESPN’s Dan Rafael, Lou DiBella indicated that another Golden Boy promoted fighter, Shane Mosley, 44-5 with 37 KOs, who is looking to fight on May 31st on HBO pay-per-view, might be in line for Carlos Quintana’s first defense of his WBO welterweight championship. Quintana took the title with an upset victory over Paul Williams this past Saturday.
“I called Richard Schaefer in the last twenty-four hours and he indicated that it was very interesting and we should speak about it again,” DiBella is quoted as saying. “We agreed it would be an interesting matchup of styles and an exciting fight. I ran the fight by Carlos and his trainer, Jose Bonilla, and they like the fight.”
There were talks that Mosley could face former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga after ‘El Matador’s’ defeat of Fernando Vargas but that bout appears to have been mere speculation. Mayorga now says he is targeting WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto who defends his title against Alfonso Gomez on April 12th at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.